12+ Competitor SWOT Analysis Samples & Templates – PDF, Word

There are four main components of a SWOT analysis and they are strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. They make up the acronym SWOT. It is a very useful tool that is mostly used in business and other profit-seeking organization. The main goal of a SWOT analysis is to help companies or businesses point out the reasons why their corporate plans come to fail. However, its use is not limited to that.

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A SWOT analysis is known to be conducted on one’s own company or business in order to help identify problems and find a solution to fix these problems. But did you know that you can also use a SWOT analysis of your competitors? yes, you got it right. A SWOT analysis can also be done to identify the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats of any business competitor. To provide you a guide or reference, we have included competitor SWOT analysis samples and templates that you may find useful Check them all out below.

SWOT Competitive Factor Analysis

Printable Competitor SWOT Analysis Sample

What Is a Competitor SWOT Analysis?

Whether you are planning to start your own business or want to have an advantage over your competitors, there is one decision making tool that you must utilize and that is a competitor SWOT analysis. We usually know that a SWOT analysis is used to conduct an analysis of one’s own business. Not a lot of people know that it can also be used to conduct an analysis of any competitors that a business has. A competitor SWOT analysis is as helpful as that of a SWOT analysis of one’s own business because it provides one with essential information on how to be able to have an advantage over the competition using the their own strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. There is actually not much difference to a SWOT analysis on your competitor and a SWOT analysis for your own business. The same components are required and the same steps are followed when conducting it.

Advantages of a Competitor SWOT Analysis

There are certain advantages provided by a competitor SWOT analysis that is why its use has come to exist to this day. If you know the advantages that yo can get from a certain tool, then you will definitely get motivated to use it. Here are some of the wonderful advantages of a competitor SWOT analysis.

A competitor SWOT analysis will be able to help your SEO strategy by helping you identify which areas you should focus on and decide on the right things for you to win on certain things and not get your efforts wasted.

Through a competitor SWOT analysis, you will be able to point out what your competitor’s strengths are, as well as their weakness, opportunities and threats. Just knowing these sets of information will help you devise a plan or strategy on how you can get a fair advantage in the business.

Finding out what products your competitors are producing or releasing in the market will best help you prepare for what is to come. This will help you make decisions whether to improve your products to be able to stay in the competition and still maintain your position in the business industry.

Market gaps can be identified through a SWOT analysis and therefore can be prevented before one gets into further disadvantageous position.

Staying on top and updated with the marketing strategies used by business competitors. This allows you to be able to analyze their business activities, thus helps you create a marketing strategy that will best help your business.

How to Perform a SWOT Analysis on Your Competition

Another thing that you should know about a competitor SWOT analysis is how to be able to perform or create one. It is important to have an overview on how it is done, especially for new learners, as this will help you create your own style and get used to doing it. Here are some simple and easy-to-follow steps that can help you perform a SWOT analysis on your competition.

Step #1: Sign up for your competitor’s mailing list.

This is one of the easiest ways on how you will be able to get a continuous stream of information from your competitors, like their current promotions, their new product releases, their sales and many more. By doing so you are trying to asses your competitor from a customer’s point of view and this is one way that you can make assessments without doing secret infiltration or illegally infiltrating into their business.

Step #2: Determine the strengths of your competitors.

Why do you need to know this? there is nothing wrong with thinking that you are doing better than your competitors, but it still pays to know what they are good at and what they are capable of doing. If you know their strengths then you can decide to do better. And that will give you an advantage over them.

Step #3: Know their weaknesses.

Just like how useful it is to know about their strengths, learning about the weaknesses of your competition can also benefit you. How? You can simply avoid doing the things that they lack and further strengthen the skills or abilities that your business has. You will be able to surpass them and avoid the things that they are doing wrong.

Step #4: What opportunities are left by your competitors?

If you want to have an advantage over your competitors, then you should be checking out the opportunities that they have left out. These opportunities will help your business gain more customers and create a marketing strategy that will benefit your business. This is done by turning their weaknesses into your strengths? If they have committed certain mistakes that opened an opportunity for you, then take advantage of it.

Step #5: What threats does your competitors pose on your business?

Simply finding out what these threats are will help you devise a marketing strategy or plan that will prevent your business from getting left behind. This way you won’t lose your customers, business shares and business popularity to your competition. You should take each threat seriously, like when you see more customers checking out their business than yours, more followers on social networking sites and many more.

Follow the steps above and keep some of the pointers provided in mind when you perform a SWOT analysis to your competition. They are sure to help you get ahead of all of them. Through a SWOT analysis, you can create new marketing and business strategies that will get your business ahead of everyone else. You may also be interested in other related titles, like Hotel SWOT Analysis Samples & Templates and HR SWOT Analysis Samples & Templates.

Blank SWOT Analysis Template

Simple Competitor SWOT Analysis Example

How to Write Better SWOT Analysis

If you want to know the secret to writing better SWOT analysis, then you might want to check out the following tips.

Have all members of your team participate conducting the SWOT analysis. Ask them for their output this way you will have a lot of information based on the opinions of each member, which will allow you to see things in different perspectives.

Write clearly and concisely. You would want to avoid ambiguous words that means a lot of things because they may be misinterpreted. You would also want to avoid using technical terms unless it is really necessary.

Write with a purpose and write with the goals and objectives of the SWOT analysis in mind. This way yo will be able to gather the exact information you need.

Get help from your members. get them involved in the analyzation and strategic planning. Always remember that more heads is better than one.

Make it a habit to review and proofread your work, and ensure that it makes sense. A properly edited work is more useful than anything else you can ever think of.

Just follow these tips and you will surely be able to write a better SWOT analysis.